A few days ago I had a recording from the 2004 Montreaux Jazz Festival playing in the background whilst doing other things, and heard something very non-jazz-like (evoking Appalachia, in fact) that made me stop what I was doing and find out the name of the artist: the harpist/singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom. That led me to purchase her album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, this afternoon, which I'm listening to now. She's a very talented harpist, and though it's an understatement to call her voice "quirky", it's quickly growing on me (and not like a fungus or anything). Her voice is sort of...innocent, fey and lacking in artifice of any kind. Her lyrics are also most entertaining. It's kind of hard to stay in a bad mood listening to this CD. Of what's played so far, the recording quality is impressive, except for track 6 (This Side of the Blue) which has some very nasty and prominent hum.

Just listened to a few samples of Joanna Newsom. Beautiful music. I can't get the harp playing out of my head. Yes, she has a quirky voice--not quirky "ugh, I can't stand it," but more "hey, I've never heard something quite like that before." It works with her music, though.